SPRINGBANK 2016 THE LOCAL BARLEY RELEASE

After a long wait the new 2016 local barley is about to hit the world with a limited world wide release of 9000 bottles. Cask Strength 54.3% Vol

What is the Local Barley some will ask naturally? Basically it’s a single malt made with locally grown barley around 8 miles from the distillery, Nothing unusual some might think, but given the distillery lies in the middle of Campbeltown it would be difficult to get it closer.

The water is from the old Springbank supply directly below the distillery.

The peat is locally cut something that’s not done as often these days due to the environmental impact caused by the mass whisky production carried out in and around Campbeltown over 200 years, today a small amount is taken to help maintain the peat fields.

Coal used in the heating of the Kiln is a truly rare commodity since the local mine closed in the 1960s, Springbank have a few tones held in storage to make the local barley.

Springbank is the only 2.5 times distilled spirit created through reduction rather than just simply cutting the liquid, It’s also bottled just yards from the still room and the bonded warehouses used to age the liquid.

NEW SPRINGBANK LOCAL BARLEY 16 YEAR OLD 54.3%

VERY LIMITED AVAILABILITY 9000 Bottles world wide.

This new Local barley delivers on taste and quality that all those who love the iconic Springbank would ever want.

Whisky Ramblings Via Video #123

Mark Dermul, Belgian Whiskyblogger, tries a duty free Speyside whisky. Glenfiddich launched the Cask Collection for Global Travel Retail. The three bottlings are the Select Cask, the Reserve Cask and the Vintage Cask. The series celebrates the Solera marrying process in which several casks are put together in the handcrafted Solera vat at Glenfiddich. He tried the first in the series, the Select Cask, which turned out to be a summery dram indeed. The video was shot on location in Edinburgh, near the Royal Yacht Britannia and on Arthur’s Seat.  

https://youtu.be/3cqzKG5rOPw

Whiskey Tour of Ireland 

DAY 1:

Arrive to Dublin and meet our driver and guide who is going to take you for a panoramic tour of Dublin.

Discover the beauty of Dublin and visit Trinity College and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

In evening you can enjoy whisky tasting and dinner in the 37 Dawson Street, one of the best bars in Dublin.

As an option, you can also book a Whiskey tasting class, which includes the history & tasting notes of whiskeys from Ireland, America, Scotland and Japan with a whiskey specialist!

DAY 2:

After Full Irish Breakfast your driver collects you and takes you for a tour to visit Old Jameson Distillery and the Teeling Whiskey Distillery.

In the Old Jameson Distillery located in the heart of Old Dublin, you can track the Irish Whiskey history since the 6^th century. Almost like a tour of a working distillery you can follow the fascinating craft of whiskey making through the different stages from grain intake to malting, mashing, fermentation, distillation, maturation and bottling.  Finally the tour culminates in the Jameson bar for a traditional Irish Whiskey tasting session.

You may also like to take the opportunity of enjoying a premium tutoring of Irish Whiskey or pull up a stool at JJ’s Bar and order a tasting mat with four of our favourite Jameson Family Reserve whiskeys. Sample the much-celebrated Jameson Distillery Reserve 12 years Old, Jameson Select Reserve, Jameson Gold Reserve and Jameson 18year old Reserve.

Your next stop will be in The Teeling Whiskey Distillery, which is Dublin’s newest destination for whiskey fans or for anyone with an interest in Dublin’s long, historical association with Irish whiskey.

The Bang Bang Bar serves complete portfolio of multi-award winning Irish whiskeys and experienced bartenders are on hand to take people through tastings of each of the products.

Alex Chasko & Stephen Teeling guide you through Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey. From the hand selected casks of malt and grain to the extra maturation in rum barrels and bottling at 46% with no chill filtration it produces the most unique Irish blend in the world.

After the tour, you can choose different tasting options.

Overnight in Dublin.

DAY 3:

After Full Irish Breakfast at your Hotel your driver will take you to the towns of Kilbeggan and Tullamore.

You will visit Kilbeggan Distillery (Lockes Distillery):  the only small pot still whiskey distillery remaining in Ireland. It houses the only examples of what used to be a widespread Irish industry. Kilbeggan Distillery was licensed in 1757 and produced whiskey for over 200 years.

The guided tour takes about 1 hour 30 minutes and shows the ancient process of whiskey making. The two sources of power, the steam engine and the water wheel are always of great interest. Over 85% of the original distillery machinery remains intact and restoration work is ongoing.

A tour of Kilbeggan Distillery will take you back in time to discover how Irish whiskey was made during John Lockes ownership of the distillery during the 19th century before bringing you into the present where you can hear, smell and taste Kilbeggan Irish whiskey as it is distilled today.

Finished with a Masterclass in tasting of four unique Irish whiskeys, Kilbeggan 8 Single Grain, Kilbeggan Irish whiskey, Tyrconnell Single Malt and Connemara Peated Single Malt.

After visit in Kilbeggan, you will drive to Tullamore, to visit distillery opened by Daniel E.Williams in 1829. The grandson of Daniel E. Williams, Desmond revolutionised the whiskey industry by introducing Ireland’s first blended whiskey. Tullamore D.E.W. believes in Power of Three: Triple Distilled, Triple Blended and Triple Cask Matured, which create a whiskey of greater complexity, balance, and unrivalled smoothness.

The full tour takes in every step of the artisan craft of whiskey making, each stage a story, told through captivating audio-visual media and the good old Irish charm of the expert guides.

After this, you will go to Athlone, where you stay for the night.

DAY 4:

After Full Irish Breakfast at the hotel you will be transferred to Belfast.

Enjoy a city tour of Northern Ireland’s Capital, which has been voted one of Europe’s most fashionable cities.

Visit Titanic Belfast, which extends over nine interactive galleries, explore the shipyard and travel to the depths of the ocean to uncover the true legend of Titanic, in the city where it all began.

Continue the tour to see the Belfast City Hall: built in 1906, in classical Renaissance style, in Portland stone, the crowning feature of the City Hall is the main dome.

In the evening discover the wonderful pubs this popular city has to offer. Make sure you will visit the Duke of York, the best whiskey bar in Ulster, which offers unique whiskey experience with their over 150 whiskey’s selection.

The Duke of York is located along the cobbled entry Commercial Court, in a historical part of the city and one of the oldest streets in Belfast.

Overnight Belfast.

DAY 5:

Full Irish Breakfast at hotel.

This morning you depart along the majestic Antrim coast starting with the Glens of Antrim, nine valleys running from the Antrim Plateau to the ocean and you will stop at Giant’s Causeway.

The Giant’s Causeway, renowned for its polygonal columns of layered basalt, is the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland and in 2015 was awarded the UKs Best Heritage Attraction at the British Travel Awards. Resulting from a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago, this is the focal point of a designated Area of outstanding natural beauty and has attracted visitors for centuries.

You will then be driven to the highlight of your Irish Whiskey Tour: Old Bushmills Distillery. It is Ireland’s oldest working distillery in County Antrim, Northern Ireland on the beautiful North Coast. The original grant to distil was signed in 1608 by King James 1st and there has been distillation on this site since then, using the unique water from their own stream and Irish barley. The Bushmills Brand Experience encompasses guided tours around a working distillery with all the associated sights and smells, tutored whiskey tastings, a specialist whiskey shop. At the conclusion of your tour you will be offered a whiskey in the 1608 Bar.

After your tour of the oldest distillery in the world it is time to return to Belfast.

DAY 6:

Transfer to Dublin or Belfast Airport for your flight home.

Anna Paluszak Geranio
Customer Manager
http://www.eirebus.ie/
——————————————————–
Tel: +353-1-8242626
Fax: +353-1-8242627

Early February 2016 Outturn Offerings 

Cask No. 121.77                                      $160

Dunnage warehouse orange boxes

Highland, Island

The nose had elements of oiled wood, linoleum, balsa wood and orange boxes, plus various sweet treats (brown sugar, toffee, sweet fig, chocolate and crunchy-nut cornflakes). The unreduced palate had spicy samosa heat to liven up the mouth; flavours included nutty (toasted pistachio, almond croissant) and sweet (bonbons, marshmallows, dark chocolate orange, sweet pastry). With water, the nose found syrup sponge and sugared almonds, with some new complications joining in to draw out a broader character – dunnage warehouses, burnt sticks, tobacco and ham. The palate was now a sweet and juicy pear flan with burnt edges – pleasant and nicely balanced.

Drinking tip: Sunday afternoon – listening to your favourite music.

Colour: Marmalade sky

Cask: Refill hogshead

Age: 19 years

Date distilled: November 1995

Alcohol: 53.4%

USA allocation: 114 bottles

Flavour profile: Spicy & sweet 

*President’s Choice*  

Cask No. 28.26                              $105

Pile-driver punch whisky

Highland, Southern

The nose hinted at paint and glue – water shifted this to fresh linen and warm photocopies; we didn’t find that in the taste. The rest of the nose had herbal, grassy notes (hay, thyme, cucumber) and fruity sweetness (brandy snaps, orange zest, peach stones, golden syrup, chilli marmalade). The palate had a pile-driver punch of spirity heat (even with water) but after a couple of sips we learned to take it on the chin – nice grassy, cereal notes, including popcorn, riverbank reeds and mint, then more of that fruity sweetness (mandarin, rhubarb and pineapple, with spun sugar, vanilla and pink Chewits).

Drinking tip: A good one to sip while watching action movies.

Colour: Golden sheen

Cask: Refill barrel

Age: 10 years

Date distilled: March 2005

Alcohol: 61.4%

USA allocation: 78 bottles

Flavour profile: Young & spritely 

Cask No. 100.12                                      $105

Trip to a shopping mall

Speyside, Deveron

On the nose, lemon, elderflower and tinned fruit salad gradually gave way to deeper notes of cashews, raisins, cinnamon, ginger and Buttercup cough mix. The neat palate had light spice and lots of sweetness (marshmallows, cherry lips, cola cubes, foamy bananas, Nutella and sticky toffee pudding). The reduced nose offered banana liqueur, red laces and rum and raisin ice-cream; some panellists were transported to a shopping mall (noodle bar, hairdresser and confectioner nearby). Oaky spice and vanilla began to show through on the reduced palate, along with butterscotch, banana chips, popcorn and toasted marshmallows – and a hint of Murray mints.

Drinking tip: To take on a city break, perhaps.

Colour: Buttercup gold

Cask: Refill barrel

Age: 10 years

Date distilled: February 2005

Alcohol: 58.7%

USA allocation: 108 bottles

Flavour profile: Juicy, oak & vanilla

Cask No. 33.133                                      $110 

Whipped with Happiness

Islay

This was a full Scottish Breakfast served in a leather armchair in front of a peat fire with aromas of fried eggs and bacon, grilled tomato, tatties, bangers, baked beans, sautéed mushrooms and black pudding. Wait until you try it. A sweet, smoky and savoury sensation! It has it all, everything you ever wanted in the right amount and in the right balance – ‘just throw away the cork’. If you want to add water; we were handed a vihta – a bunch of fresh birch branches to get whipped with in a Finnish sauna and the taste was bittersweet chocolate, mouth-watering and to die for.

Drinking tip: Makes every moment special

Colour: Polished cherry wood

Cask: Second-fill butt

Age: 8 years

Date distilled: May 2007

Alcohol: 60.5%

USA allocation: 120 bottles

Flavour profile: Peated

Visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America at www.smwsa.com

SPRINGBANK DUE IN 2016

• New look 21 year old due April/May 2016
• New 18 year old due August 2016
• New 25 year old limited edition due October 2016
• New Longrow 18 Sherry cask April/May 2016
• Kilkerran 12 year old This lays to rest the old WIP’s (Work In Progress) along with new packing and label. Due August 2016

So as you can see 2016 is going to be busy at Springbank & Glengyle (Kilkerran) Distilleries

RELEASES COMING SOON

Just to give you a head’s up, the next Cadenhead release will happen in February with the new Authentic collection. As soon as we have finalised the release we will let you know. hat I can tell you is we have some amazing vintages from Speyside the highlands and some great Islay’s.

Cadenhead’s club members can arrange for us to ship club bottles with any orders placed. They are all in the stores now.

IN OTHER NEWS

We are still in test mode for the new Web site so expect a few changes very soon.

The Highland Park 25 sold like hot cakes (No Shock I guess) We still have a few customers with hold bottles on one-side, you will need to contact us with-in 7 days otherwise we will have to release them for sale as they are now causing a backlog in the hold area of the stock rooms on all floors of the shop. Once they are paid for we can place them into our main hold area for safe keeping until you can come in or arrange for us to ship to you in the UK.

Finally we have to thank all those customers who put up with the disruption to the store during the renovation work that was being carried out this month.

While we still have a few bits to do it will thankfully be less disruptive to the customers coming into the store indeed you wont notice a thing only me looking a bit shabby as i am up and down ladders dusting and cleaning! Don’t worry i am not going to look like Bob the builder just a little less polished!!

Anyway that’s it for me i am sat in my Garden at 2AM on a January evening finishing off this quick newsletter and working on the next big one! (I must be mad!!)

All the best Stephen W

Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop & Tasting Room
26 Chiltern Street
London
W1U 7QF

Tel: 020 7935 6999

LIMITED EDITION JOHNNIE WALKER WHISKY

JOHNNIE WALKER BLUE ‘YEAR OF THE MONKEY’ LIMITED EDITION

Celebrate Chinese New Year in style with this limited edition bottle of the Johnnie Walker Blue Label – created to celebrate the Year of the Monkey. The all-white design is going down a storm with whisky collectors all over the world, and is highly limited, with only 750 bottles available.  Layers of big flavour, deep richness and smoke, layers of honey and fruit and an incredibly smooth finish deliver this truly rare character.

£149 Click to buy

THE JOHN WALKER LIMITED EDITION

A super rare Johnnie Walker, limited to only 330 bottles which was created in memory of the original John Walker himself. Known as the Founder’s Blend, it uses only whiskies that would have been familiar to John Walker in his lifetime, some of which come from distilleries that are now silent. Just nine distilleries in total contribute exquisitely-made whiskies, which are blended by hand using traditional methods and in extremely limited quantities, before being married together in a 100-year-old cask.

£2115 Click to buy

JOHNNIE WALKER KING GEORGE V

This special edition of Johnnie Walker Blue Label recreates the Johnnie Walker blending style in the time of King George V and celebrates the granting of a Royal Warrant to John Walker & Sons in 1934. This is a powerful, slow and exceptional blended whisky. This blend includes Port Ellen, a highly prized malt whose distillery no longer exists.

£500 Click to buy

JOHNNIE WALKER ODYSSEY

This John Walker & Sons Odyssey is a rare triple malt and a modern interpretation of Alexander Walker’s nautical decanter bottle and blend of 1932. When gently pushed, the bottle rocks elegantly to and fro.  The Johnnie Walker master blender searched a number of distilleries in Scotland for the three rare, hand picked single malts that have been carefully blended to create Odyssey. Further developed using Sir Alexander’s hand-written notes, Odyssey has been married in European oak casks to create an elegant and rich whisky.

£675 Click to buy

JOHNNIE WALKER PRIVATE LABEL

This Johnnie Walker Private Label whisky is the first in a series of one-off, once-a year JWS Private Collection limited releases of small batch, remarkable blends by Master Blender Jim Beveridge. It is created from 29 unique casks and only 8,888 numbered bottles are available worldwide. This expression is a tribute to one of Johnnie Walker’s signature flavours – Smoke. This blend includes whiskies from the experimental Calculus casks. Their intense vanilla, caramel and rich fruitiness balance the Highland, Island and Islay smokiness.

£515 Click to buy

JOHNNIE WALKER BLUE LABEL EDINBURGH LIMITED EDITION

The Edinburgh limited edition bottle is engraved with some highlight’s from the city’s skyline including Edinburgh Castle, The Scott Monument and the Duke of Wellington statue. Limited to only 1500 individually numbered bottles, it is presented in a Johnnie Walker Blue Label box with a limited edition Edinburgh sleeve.

£187 Click to buy

JOHNNIE WALKER BLUE LABEL LONDON LIMITED EDITION

The London limited edition bottle is engraved with a beautiful design featuring several of the city’s famous landmarks including Big Ben, the Gherkin, Nelson’s Column and Tower Bridge. Limited to just 2500 individually numbered bottles, only available to purchase within the UK, and presented in a limited edition London sleeve and Johnnie Walker Blue Label box. It is only available to purchase within the UK.

£187 Click to buy

David Perkins is doing an AMA tonight (Wednesday, February 10) on Reddit.

If you’re interested in checking it out David will be answering questions live from 6-8pm MT.

The AMA was organized by Redditor Ryan Oberleitner

This week Joe Ellis reviews Larceny Bourbon Whiskey

https://youtu.be/_2zVQFDWWv0

http://Twitter.com/whiskytube

https://www.facebook.com/whiskytube

THE BENRIACH AND GLENDRONACH SINGLE MALTS WIN GOLD IN STAGE ONE OF THE WORLD WHISKIES AWARDS 2016

The stage one winners and medallists of the 2016 World Whiskies Awards have been announced, with the BenRiach 10 Years Old and the GlenDronach Cask Strength batch 5 both winning gold.

Presented by Whisky Magazine, The World Whiskies Awards select, reward and promote the best Whisky Taste and Design to consumers and trade across the globe.

In stage one, each whisky is tasted in its relevant sub-category to identify and select the sub-category winners and award any medals. The panel of expert judges blind tasted entries grouped by their style, region and age statement. Each entry is tasted blind and marked to an agreed and strictly enforced marking system. In addition to nose, palate and finish, the judges will look for balance, character, complexity, quality and functionality.

The BenRiach 10 Years Old has won a gold medal in the Speyside 12 Years & Under category. The 10 Years Old, the cornerstone of the BenRiach range, is the first core range expression to be created predominantly from whiskies distilled at the BenRiach Distillery after it was acquired in 2004 by Master Blender, Billy Walker, and his two South African partners. This fresh, fruit-laden single malt captures warm oak spices, green apple, dried apricots, peach and banana with subtle touches of aniseed, lemon zest and barley.

In the Highland No Age Statement category, the gold medal was awarded to The GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 5. A perfect example of the traditional GlenDronach character, bottled at 55.3%, non chill filtered and at natural colour. This latest batch of the popular Cask Strength releases brings a perfect combination of sweet golden sultanas, rich fig syrup, ground almonds, orange bitters and a gentle dusting of black pepper. On the palate, Demerara sugar-glazed dark fruits lighten to apricot syrup infused with stem ginger and vanilla.

Sales and Marketing Director Alistair Walker said: “To receive a gold medal for the BenRiach 10 Years Old is particularly satisfying as it is the cornerstone of the BenRiach core range. Its release last year was a significant milestone for the distillery and the 10 Years Old has been well received by whisky aficionados around the world.”

For more information, visit www.glendronachdistillery.co.ukand www.benriachdistillery.co.uk

JANUARY AUCTION ENDS TODAY!

The latest auction at whisky.auction ends today from 7.30pm GMT. There are a host of Japanese whiskies to look out for, including Hibiki 30 Year Old. In addition, there are still plenty of great bottles sitting at good prices, so take a look at our selection and don’t miss your chance to place your bids